


Sparkborn

by rhythmickorbit



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Transformers Animated (2007), Transformers: Prime
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Canon-Typical Violence, College of Winterhold - Freeform, Dragonborn (Elder Scrolls), Dragonborn - Freeform, F/M, Familial Love, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, I love love love found family stories so this will mainly be that, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mages, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Please Forgive me, Quests, Reincarnation, Romantic pairings are really just side plots tbh, Sari is a dragonborn, Self-Indulgent, Swords, The Blades - Freeform, Transformers as dragons, dragonformers, implied trauma, not that important - Freeform, relationships will be tagged as they become important
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 10:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19904173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhythmickorbit/pseuds/rhythmickorbit
Summary: The rich history of Skyrim has its fair share of folklore, telling tales of metallic, lizard-like creatures known as Cyberdraconians. It is said that a civil war between these monsters tore apart the snowy landscape long ago, the destruction curtailed only by the Sparkbond, a mysterious relationship fostered between a Cyberdraconian and a mortal.It is said that when this war is reflected in the hearts and reality of mortals, the black wings of the draconian Megatron will descend again upon Skyrim. Only the Sparkbonded, and the mysterious figure known as the Sparkborn have a chance of saving the world from being devoured by his ever ravenous jaws.





	Sparkborn

The sun was just sinking below the horizon, like a hesitant child going to bed in the impermeable dark. Similar hesitance was mirrored, too, in the staggered footprints leading away from the comforting firelight of Winterhold behind them. The magelights at the College grew further away, giving the impression that there was no going back as the owners of the footprints pressed onward through the snow.

Miko squinted her crimson eyes, striking against the pure white snow around her. She held up a gray hand, borne of ash rather than snow, and a small, singular flame flared up in her palm. A bright white grin flashed across her face as she glanced back at her less energetic companions behind.

Jack, taller than the others, had a scarf wrapped around his mouth. Despite this covering, the scowl burgeoning on his face was still very clear in his eyes as he stared at the elven girl incredulously.

“You ever learn how to use an actual magelight?” Jack’s voice was muffled behind his mouth’s woolen prison.

“I’m better at fire, stupid,” Miko retorted, her previous glee replaced by annoyance as she shot her companion a glare. “‘Sides, it’s _freezing,_ and fire is _much better_ than your stupid magelight when your friends have only lived in the _desert_ and it’s colder than Coldharbour tonight.”

The small bundle lagging behind had managed to catch up as the two bickered, and two golden feline eyes peered out from the large bundle of cloaks and scarves as Raf shivered. 

“You live in the ash wastes-s-s,” Raf said, teeth chattering as he shivered. His tail lashed occasionally, his quivering frame struggling to keep pace with the two through the deep snow. Jack and Miko slowed their stride in turn, and looked at their friend with sympathetic guilt.

“Same thing, really,” Miko waved her hand dismissively. “Ash and sand _kinda_ look the same if you _squint._ And are colorblind.”

“I _am_ colorblind,” Raf huffed dryly, his breath billowing into the air as vapor when he spoke. “And the difference is pretty obvious-s-s, I think.”

The group stumbled their way over the crest of yet another snow-covered slope, and below their destination was spread out before them, in all of its creepy, ancient glory.

Saarthal.

Miko hopped onto the very top of the slope, and waved one arm wildly in excitement to beckon her more sluggish companions to the top. Even in the flickering light of her flame, Miko’s robes were a garish contrast against the white landscape. Jack had to give her this-- she wasn’t easy to lose.

Still, going out into Skyrim’s famed snowy landscapes not only at night, but in the _winter_ was not something that Jack felt all that keen about. He gave Miko the best wavering glance that he could.

“Miko,” he said. “Tell me again why we’re doing this?”

Miko’s impish grin returned, never faltering. “‘Cause Tolfdir is _boring_ , and the scheduled trip to Sarthaal is gonna be _boring,_ and being overlooked ‘cause we’re young is _boring._ Going after hours, by ourselves, to explore and find stuff?” She waved her flame-covered hand in emphasis. “ _Exciting._ ”

“And dangerous,” Jack interjected. “These tombs aren’t the safest, you know. There’s a good reason as to why only the trained mages are normally allowed in Cyberdraconian temples, anyway.”

“What, are you afraid that a metal lizard is gonna eatcha?” Miko snickered. “‘Hey, Miss Darby, _Jack_ thinks that we’re--’”

“Can’t we g-g-get inside already?” Raf burst out, ears folded back in agitation as the wind picked up around the group. “Please?” The spectacles perched on his nose were beginning to glaze over with frost, and through his shivering the little Khajiit tried to push them back up in vain.

“C’mon, then!” Miko jumped off of the ridge without warning, and slid down the slope on her feet with relative ease.

That is, until she began to tumble head over heels down the hill. Jack and Raf sighed simultaneously, and carefully picked their way down. Miko was already on her feet, running between the shovels and pickaxes that littered the entrance to the ruins.

The fact that the tomb was still intact after all of this time was impressive. When Tolfdir had said that it was preserved perfectly, Jack had sincerely doubted the Alteration professor’s perception of that fact. He lost his alembic so often, after all. However, despite the cracked stone and weathered carvings, Jack had to admit that he could almost picture the legendary Sparkbonded and their draconian partner being sealed behind these stone walls.

If such things existed, of course. Raf was fairly convinced that the legends were pure metaphor, but although Miko teased Jack about the Nordic oral traditions, she liked to hear Jack’s mom tell the stories of the Sparkbonded just as much as anyone else. In fact, Jack felt almost certain that Miko actually _believed_ in the cyberdraconian legends, despite the fact that there was almost no proof of their existence, excepting ancient carvings and depictions.

Jack was unsure about his own perception of the creatures, himself. He had to admit, though, the prospect of living, metallic dragons was an appealing one.

Growing closer to the tomb, Jack’s apprehension began to grow. Miko was already at the metal doors, bouncing in place with impatience at her companions’ slower pace. The ruins were almost silent, except for the crunch of feet in snow and the sound of Miko’s flame in the distance. Jack’s lips pursed as he glanced up at the wooden supports above him, which had been built not but a few weeks earlier to keep the old stone from careening downward on a mage’s head.

Jack wondered briefly why he let Miko talk him into this.

Miko kicked the metal door, but it remained firmly shut despite the force behind her leg. She scowled at the thing.

“I wanted to make an entrance,” she explained as Jack and Raf finally approached the entrance.

“Well, just getting this thing open should be enough of one,” Jack’s mouth quirked to the side as he evaluated the door. It clearly wasn’t _meant_ to be kicked open by a young Dunmer, but that hadn’t phased Miko. “If we can’t get it open, we could always go back to our quarters at the College. You know, our safe quarters. Our warm beds, and a nice mug of--”

“That’s boring, Jack,” Miko rolled her eyes. “Help me get this open. The sooner we do,” she turned her wild eyes toward the shivering mess of a Khajiit. “The sooner we can get out of the wind.”

That was enough for Raf to start shoving his body weight against the metal door, which only creaked a little bit at his efforts. Miko joined him, shooting a glance at Jack as she attempted to shove the door with her non-burning hand.

Jack sighed heavily and began shoving against the door as well. The door’s creaks echoed through the stone halls inside, which only encouraged Miko to push harder. She extinguished her flame, leaving the three of them in darkness as she focused her strength on opening the Kynareth-forsaken door. 

Without warning, the door gave way. The three mages tumbled face-first into the void inside, and Jack felt his hands scrape on the uneven ground. He let out a small groan of pain, remaining on the ground for a bit to give himself some recovery time. 

_This was an awful idea_ , Jack thought, for what he knew wasn’t the first or last time. He sputtered as Raf shook snow off of himself, sprayed by what was now slush. 

The door shut behind the three with a loud _clang_. Jack stiffened at the sound, and futilely turned his gaze toward Miko in the dark.

“Who closed the door?” Raf echoed Jack’s inner query. Jack could hear Raf’s tail lash against the ground in anxiety.

“Not funny, Jack,” Miko groused, and the chamber materialized around the three as she lit a new flame in her hand. Her unamused expression was made grim through the flickering light under her face. 

“What?” Jack protested in disbelief. “I wouldn’t have done that. If anything, that was--” Jack suddenly clamped his mouth shut as the chamber and hall in front of them blazed aglow.

Magelights flickered to life among the carvings on the walls, dancing and blazing as steadily as the sun. Jack slowly got to his feet, surveying the area with complete awe. Who was doing this?

He glanced at Raf inquisitively. Raf, on his part, simply shook his head in wonder. The Khajiit shed his many layers of cloaks, the sudden, blazing warmth of the chamber rendering such coverings unnecessary. He piled them next to the firmly shut door behind them.

“There must be someone in here with us,” Raf wiped the frost off of his spectacles and gazed around the chamber with widened, golden eyes. “Or maybe…. There’s some kind of hidden mechanism that we activated?” He scanned the ground beneath them. Plenty of bones, but no visible pressure plates. 

As Raf squeaked at the realization that _yes, there are often many body parts strewn about in a tomb_ , Jack returned his attention to the passageway ahead. It appeared to be a well-trodden path, likely from the older mages at the College, so perhaps it would be a reasonably safe route.

Miko, apparently, determined this in a split second, and practically scrambled ahead through the passage. Jack rolled his eyes, and called for Raf to follow.

The said Khajiit righted himself from his initial panic, and followed his companions through the ruins. 

* * *

Miko, as it turned out, had absolutely no patience when it came to exploring ruins.

This was both surprising, because Miko had wanted to do this in the first place, and unsurprising, because Miko had little patience for anything that didn’t have to do with blowing things up with fire. Jack always wondered how she got accepted to Winterhold in the first place, but generally refrained from asking. He had a gut feeling that it was the right thing to do in that case-- after all, Miko had never spoken about her previous life in Morrowind. 

Raf stood a little bit behind, examining the occasional carving on the wall. Jack ended up being the guard, one hand on his sword as he kept one eye out for draugr. He couldn’t imagine that the older mages hadn’t cleared the creatures out already, but the stories that he had been told so many times continued to surface in different parts of his awareness. It never hurt to be cautious, especially when one was in the interior of a ruin that hadn’t been fully explored yet.

The magelights continued to flicker on as the trio went deeper into Sarthaal’s belly. Jack noted that as they continued, the glowing masses had become confined to the carvings adorning the wall. Raf appeared fascinated by the depictions, his golden eyes wide as he examined each one like a treasure.

“Jack, come look,” Raf waved the Nord over, his tail twitching with suppressed enthusiasm. He pointed to an angular depiction of what appeared to be a cyberdraconian and a humanoid standing side by side. “This wasn’t done by mortal hands,” he stated confidently.

“How do you know? Maybe the carver was just… really precise.” Jack squinted a little at the brightly glowing, unnaturally straight lines.

“No, I don’t think it was,” Raf frowned a little in thought, ears twitching. “The lines would always be a _little_ wobbly when carved by a mortal. Even a master of the craft would have some flaws, some chips in the design. But _this_ ,” Raf gestured at the angles and curves. “This was done by something mechanical, I would think.”

“A Cyberdraconian, you mean?” Jack raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Raf raised his hands placatingly. “It’s a possibility. An improbable one, but a possibility nonetheless.”

“Guys, _come on_!” Miko shouted from the end of the corridor. Jack and Raf exchanged a raised-eyebrow glance, but followed the Dunmer’s shouts.

Miko stood at what appeared to be a dead end, her face scrunched into a pout. “A dead end,” she grumbled, and crossed her arms. “It can’t be, though. Jack, _you’re_ the expert on weird Nordic tombs.” she glanced at her companion. “What do we do _now_?”

Jack shrugged nonchalantly. “Go back to the College, I guess,” he said nonchalantly, much to Miko’s chagrin. She groaned dramatically, slumping against the smooth wall before her.

“Stop being boriiiiing,” Miko whined. “There has to be _something_ here that we can find. I just _feel_ it!”

Raf, on his part, examined the rubble around the wall in front of them. He glanced up at Jack and Miko, his mouth quirked to the side in thought. “There’s an indentation on the wall there,” he pointed to where Miko was leaning.

Miko straightened slightly. “Yeah, so?”

“And there are scorch marks on the floor.” Raf gestured at the blackened streaks covering the ground. “Obviously, we’re missing something here.” The Khajiit’s tail twitched thoughtfully as he began to pace around the chamber. He peered into every crack he could find, until Jack heard him say “Here we go!”

Raf pulled a handle out of the wall, something that Jack hadn’t even noticed, despite the glow of the magelights around them. He watched as a small crevice in the wall opened to reveal an amulet. It had a golden pendant, carved with Alteration runes, but the chain that held the small golden disk was tarnished, revealing the pendant to be the only true thing of value.

Raf grabbed the amulet by the chain and held it up triumphantly. “I found the key to our path,” he announced.

“Doesn’t look like a key to me,” Miko rolled her eyes, to which Raf’s ear twitched in response. 

“No, this is how we’re going to open the rest of the passageway,” Raf urged, and slipped the amulet around his neck. Jack and Miko exchanged skeptical glances, but simply took a small step back as Raf aimed his hands at the small divet in the wall in front of them. His eyes narrowed to golden slits as green-hued energy gathered in his outstretched palms, and flowed directly into the divet. Jack couldn’t recognize the spell that Raf was using; it didn’t _look_ like any of the Alteration spells that he had used before, but judging by the rock wall receding into the ground, it was effective.

Raf lowered his palms. Miko bounced to his side and ruffled the Khajiit’s mane, warranting a groan of protest.

“Good job, Raf!” Miko’s grin was back, as white as the magelights igniting in the path before the trio. 

Ahead, Jack could parse out the hollows of tombs lining the walls, as well as the bodies within. He gave his younger compatriots a warning glance, before cautiously padding his way into the narrow corridor. The bodies, with their withered flesh and folded arms, were just an arm’s length away on each side-- far too close for Jack to be willing to take any chances. He flashed a look back at Raf and Miko, and waved a beckoning arm for them to follow. For good measure, he put one finger to his lips and pointed at the possible draugr lurking on either side of the hallway.

To his slight surprise, Miko did end up complying with his warning. She kept her mouth shut for a good while, or for what _felt_ like a good while. Jack made a mental note to give her a sarcastic congratulations later, but turned his gaze toward the floor. Nordic ruins were full of traps, after all, and it appeared that the College mages had not gotten this far to disable them. Despite himself, Jack felt a small thrill run through his body as the group stepped along the uneven path. His mother was going to kill him if she found out about this, he knew, but Jack felt suddenly struck by the fascination of this place. Perhaps one of these withered corpses was related to him? It was very possible, after all-- his mother’s family had lived at the College for as long as history books could recall.

Jack’s thoughts were interrupted like a twist to the neck when Miko let out a shout of surprise. The sound echoed off of the ceiling and walls, travelling further and further ahead of the group. If anything was down there, it would have definitely heard _that_.

Jack whipped his head around to face the perpetrator, eyes widened as if to say _you idiot, do you want to get us killed?_

Miko stared at him sheepishly as she peeled the attacking cobwebs off of her face. She simply shrugged at Jack as he glared at her. Her unempathetic grin gradually morphed into horror, however, and Raf’s ears folded back as Jack heard the distinct sound of flesh slapping on stone.

Slowly, Jack turned around.

The draugr loomed over him, sinews and skin hanging off of it like moss on a tree. It was so close that Jack could almost smell its carrion-scented breath-- it seemed to inhale and exhale, albeit in shuddering, wet rattles. Panic gripped Jack’s chest as the creature, with an unnatural, floppy slowness, raised its wickedly sharp blade.

Almost immediately, the creature was blasted back by a bolt of fire. Jack’s gaze was back at Miko, whose hands were stretched out and her eyes rounded in terror. She looked apologetically at Jack, whose shirt was slightly singed from the blast of heat.

Jack couldn’t find it in himself to care as he stared at the draugr-- now dead for good-- sprawled out against the wall some distance away.

He swore that he could hear coffins opening behind them.

“Guys,” Raf’s voice resembled the frightened mew of a kitten. “Guys, I think that we should--”

Jack agreed wholeheartedly before Raf even finished his sentence. He grabbed Miko’s wrist and Raf’s arm, pulling them as he ran down the corridor. Being quiet didn’t matter, now-- the dead were already awakening, ready to defend their defunct city.

His heart beat in his chest full-tilt as he ran, not caring where he went. Jack knew that he had taken a right, and maybe a left or two-- but finding their way out later didn’t mean scrap if the three of them were going to be Draugr food. Did Draugr eat? Maybe there was a book on that. His mind was racing with only faintly-related thoughts, and Jack’s body took full control as the three tumbled down the corridors.

He didn’t see how thin the floor was worn beneath him as he approached a final door. Jack only heard the _slap slap slap_ of half-rotted feet on the ground and the soft wheezing of not quite dead Nords before he realized that they were all falling now. The floor had caved in, and now Jack, Raf, and Miko were falling.

They fell down.

Down.

Down.

And as Jack reunited with the sweet, solid ground, his backside protested with an undignified crack upon impact. He was only given a moment of respite, before the full weight of an adolescent Dunmer crashed on top of him, followed by that of a pint-sized Khajiit. Jack’s breath heaved as his ribs made an unnatural shifting sound.

“Get off of me,” Jack croaked at the weight on top of him. When the said weight did not comply, he rolled over and let the two flop on the ground. 

“Rude,” Miko groaned, her arms splayed akimbo around her. 

“Hnnngh,” Raf’s face was evidently pressed to the ground.

Despite his pain, Jack couldn’t hear the draugr anymore, at least. He took a moment to let the pain in his ribs fade a little bit, laying exactly where he fell like a hibernating snow bear.

The pain did not fade after a while, and Jack eventually lost the mental argument on whether he should stay in that very spot or not. He sat up, with more than a few bones popping in the process. His armor was dented in a few places, but at least Jack could say that he didn’t come out of this with more than just bruises. 

“You okay?” he asked his companions.

Two groans answered his question simultaneously.

Jack took the initiative to stand, legs still shaking from the draugr-induced adrenaline. The magelights were noticeably absent from this chamber, and the floor was nowhere near as clear as that in the vestibules above. Jack heard something crunch below his boots, and he grimly hoped that none of his ancestors would haunt him after this. After that disheartening thought, Jack proceeded to prod Miko in the side with his boot. 

“Up,” he said. “We need your fire if we want to keep going.”

Miko, on her part, seemed to remember that they were exploring still, and hopped to her feet as soon as Jack finished his sentence. A flame ignited in her left palm, and the crevice was brought into view.

Jack’s previous assumptions had been correct-- the floor was absolutely littered with humanoid bones. He recognized human, elven, and even Khajiiti remains laying on the floor. Every body was lying down, with their hands crossed over their chests. Jack wondered briefly as to why they weren’t locked in a coffin, as the corpses upstairs were-- however, the general unmoving quality of the corpses was enough to set Jack’s mind at reasonable ease. The chamber lead toward yet another hallway, toward which Miko scampered over and beckoned the other two to come along with her.

The walls down the corridor were cracked and unsound. A cold wind rushed through the space, making all three in the group shiver. Jack felt a sharp edge to the cold, as if being scrutinized by a stern, motherly gaze. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but it felt like something was _there_ with them. 

The hallway, lit by Miko’s flame, was completely empty. 

“I feel like something’s watching us,” Raf piped up, his voice edged with continued discomfort. Jack simply nodded his agreement.

* * *

The trio walked in silence, unwilling to provoke more undead abominations into pursuing them down an increasingly more narrow passageway. A palpable tension stiffened in the air, and before turning every corner Jack found himself holding his breath. The scrutinizing feeling only grew stronger as they walked.

_These_ halls were unadorned, lacking the beautiful carvings that had so captivated Raf upstairs. Instead, they were simply functional-- but to lead _where_?

Despite their unease, the trio pressed onward, their path twisting and turning with the ever-narrow halls. At the end, there was only a small, battered door to show for their journey. 

Miko reached forward with her free hand, and opened the door with ease.

The chamber that opened up before the three was simply _magnificent_ \-- Jack struggled to find another word for it. The floors were smooth, and veins of metal intertwined with the stone walls. The ceiling was a constellation of swirling patterns and jagged depictions of serpentine creatures made out of a crystalline material, with what appeared to be an ancient language detailing every aspect of the design. Pipes full of a flowing blue substance flowed across the floor in a spiral pattern, all leading to a large, metal pod in its center. Something pulsed from within the pod-- something was _alive_ in there. Inexplicably, Jack felt a pulling in his bones toward the thing. His hands began to shake from the strain of _keeping away_ from the pod-- he needed to see what was in there, what was calling him--

A small, clawed hand grasped his upper arm. Jack was jerked out of his haze, and glanced back at Raf.

“Be careful, Jack,” Raf implored. “We don’t know what that thing is, or what it does…”

Miko, on her part, had extinguished her flame and was now rummaging through the urns surrounding the edges of the chamber. Rather than the gold pieces that tended to populate those containers of offerings, she pulled out shards of blue crystal instead. Jack’s attention was jerked from Miko’s find, and back to the metallic pod, where the pulsing light had grown all the more urgent.

“This is _way_ better than anything that boring old Tolfdir could show us!” Miko crowed. Her voice sounded underwater as Raf’s grip slackened, and Jack found himself moving toward the odd light. He felt a connection with it, and an inner assurance that he had last felt when his mother guided him through Restoration spells. 

Jack reached out, very much against his better judgment, and brushed his hand against the metal pod.

Light exploded out from the container as it burst open. Violent force knocked Jack onto his injured backside, and further shoved him onto the wall. The glowing pipes around the room split open, the blue liquid pouring onto the floor like an endless river. The designs on the ceiling seemed to vibrate and shake, and a giant shape emerged from the floor. A long neck arched overhead, two blue eyes fixated on the three, small, winglike appendages spread out from the shape’s back, metal creaked and blue liquid splattered every which way…

 _“What did you do?”_ Raf shouted, ears pinned back in alarm. 

Jack, on his part, was rendered speechless as the light seemed to pierce his skin. His hand, where he had touched the pod, burned. Smoke rose from the mark, and the shape became more clear as the gigantic, feline-esque figure padded from the pod’s remains. Grace flowed through the creature’s body, and a long, lashing tail knocked over the urns, making them crash to the ground.

With the gleaming metal hide and the piercing blue eyes, Jack was certain about only one thing--

“Cyberdraconian,” Miko breathed.

“My name is Arcee. And _you_ must be Jack.” the creature’s voice rang through the chamber, strong and clear like the mountain wind. Their eyes fixated on Jack’s, whose hand had begun to glow white-hot from the pod. He couldn’t move, couldn’t blink-- but even through his petrified state, he could feel that same assurance squirming inside of his gut. A fierce, motherly feeling blossomed on the edges of his consciousness, which intermingled with a distinct edge of rage and incredulity. Jack was pretty sure that those weren’t his emotions-- they were sharp, unfamiliar, existing just along the fringes of his awareness. He felt like squirming under the pointy feeling, but kept still, his eyes ever-wide from the deluge information in front of him. His head spun.

The cyberdraconian arched her-- Jack could tell that it was a her-- neck downward, so that she was face to face with Jack. Those smoldering eyes scrutinized him, seeming to sift through his emotions as he sat, helpless. At last, the cyberdraconian sat back on her haunches and sniffed.

“If I knew that my Sparkbonded would be so shellshocked,” Arcee's voice was lined with barely-contained amusement. "I would have taken my time coming out of stasis."

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, friends! I am back from the dead to introduce... transformers trash!
> 
> But I mean honestly, even though this is a ridiculous idea, I still adore it to bits, because I adore both of these continuities! I will do my best to incorporate lore from both things into this story, even though it is a giant mishmash of stuff.
> 
> And the ships? Wellllll. They won’t be as important as the platonic relationships, sadly, but they will have a spotlight in this! I can promise you that :3c
> 
> ((Also, I PROMISE that I am working on my other fics!! I just had to start this too though ^u^))


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